People protest for squatters' rights on the roof of Ken Clarke's house. Photograph by Felix Clay for the Guardian

"The 'invasion' of empty service camps is a refreshing example of what ordinary people can do when they have a mind to do it … a warning that people will not put up for ever with empty promises." So ran the Daily Mail's headline story of 10 August 1946, in which the newspaper praised the "robust common sense" of action taken by the desperate homeless in the immediate postwar years, action that put a roof over their heads when the state had singularly failed to do so. In praising the squatters, the Mail was of course using them as a stick with which to beat the government of the day, and draw attention to their failure to provide housing for the postwar homeless.

Today, Britain is experiencing another housing crisis: there are currently 42,000 registered homeless households, 50,000 in temporary or insecure accommodation, and research by Crisis suggests that the "hidden homeless" may number half a million. This is what the group that targeted Ken Clarke's home this week were trying to underline as they unfolded a banner reading "housing is a human right" in front of his home.

The UK has about 700,000 empty buildings, and precious little commitment from the government that changes to planning and homebuilding policy will benefit those seeking an affordable home. This is the context in which the government has proposed to criminalise squatting: new laws that will threaten many legitimate forms of protest, occupation and tenancy, and which will remove the last resort of the homeless to house themselves. But today's press seems to have forgotten its praising of the "robust common sense" of the postwar squatters. Instead, not a day goes past without another article demonising squatters. Such stories are united by an incredibly loose relationship with the truth that casts doubt on the real motive behind criminalising squatting, and it is time they were debunked.

The most widespread and damaging lie is that squatters can squat in people's homes while the real residents spend months in court trying to get them out. This is a highly emotive issue and a hugely popular media story, but it is also untrue and totally distorts the notion of squatting in the popular imagination: the Criminal Law Act 1977 provides ample protection for a residential occupier and squatting other people's homes is a criminal offence. But you wouldn't think so if you read a Daily Telegraph report, which erroneously states:

"The new law will make squatting a criminal offence rather than a civil offence and end the lengthy process of home owners having to fight legal battles in the civil courts in order to evict squatters."

Similarly, a journalist giving a recent report on BBC London breezily informed his audience that new laws are required to remove squatters from occupied residential premises, rather than being in place for decades. All this avoids the basic fact of the matter, which is that anyone looking for somewhere to squat is not going to occupy somewhere where the resident is expected back within hours or days. It's a flawed idea and a demonisation.

To get round this, news stories that are apparently about homes are rarely, if ever, as they seem. As an example, the story of Dr and Mrs Cockerell, who discovered that the house they had recently bought, which they were soon to move into, had been squatted. The Evening Standard suggested that Dr Cockerell and his pregnant wife were made homeless after squatters occupied his property. The imagery of a pregnant woman kicked out of her home because of squatters is a misrepresentation and a scarily common one. Time and again, empty properties, buy-to-let houses undergoing refurbishment and other oddities in the property system have been artfully used to represent the mythical "family homes" the papers would have us believe are under threat.

These emotive stories are being used to push through laws that have nothing to do with homeowners and everything to do with criminalising trespass. If the government gets its way, there will be a huge impact on tenants' rights in the face of unscrupulous landlords. Occupations, mass trespasses of the kind undertaken by ramblers, and other forms of lawful protest will become criminal offences. And those 700,000 empty properties will continue to be empty, making money for their owners but contributing nothing to today's housing emergency. The Squash campaign (Squatters' Action for Secure Homes) has built a broad coalition of charities, housing organisations and politicians to oppose this bill. We urge anyone who has ever read one of the deeply misinformed articles currently swarming the press to get their facts straight before acting against the most vulnerable members of our society and against some of our society's most fundamental rights.

Activists who planned a "sleep-in" outside parliament to highlight proposed anti-squatting legislation were violently removed by police under terrorism rules that restrict protests to within a 0.6 mile (1km) radius. Most protesters left the scene peacefully but about 50 refused to leave, claiming they were holding a Halloween picnic